Giovanni da Murta

Giovanni da Murta was born in the village of Murta in the Polcevera valley near Genoa to a wealthy commoner family. A banker, he was elected the second doge of Genoa on 25 December 1345, after Simone Boccanegra stepped down, as a man backed by no faction amid feuds among the noble houses.

Against the Grimaldi he had a private Maona equip a fleet of twenty-five to twenty-nine galleys under Simone Vignoso, and they fled to Marseille. He then sent the fleet to retake Chios. When Vignoso came home without the payment promised him, Giovanni gave him and his Maona partners the right to administer the island.

He also worked to strengthen Genoese rule in Corsica, and chose not to put his own initials on the coinage. Plague killed him on 6 January 1350, and he was buried in San Lorenzo.